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Hervey Bay
The 13 hour journey from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay by Greyhound coach wasn't too bad. We had a number of stop offs for food and drink and the rest of the time we slept.
We arrived in Hervey Bay in heavy rain, it was 7:30am and we were looking out for our free pink shuttle bus to take us to our hostel called Next. We had checked tripadvisor and were impressed by the reviews. It would also be nice to stay somewhere clean (unlike Magnums in Airlie Beach). Next had had won awards for cleanliness so we were hopeful it would be ok.
We were able to check in but unfortunately our room wasn't ready until 9:30am so we took a walk into town to find a cafe. The town is very small but can get busy as it is known for whale watching and trips to Fraser Island. We were a week too late for whale watching but as we had already done it in New Zealand we wern't that fussed but we had already booked a 2 day 1 night stay to Fraser Island leaving the next day.
We went back to the hostel to find our room ready. We couldnt believe the size of it, two sets of bunk beds and a double bed with a bunk above it, and an ensuite all to ourselves. A room for seven but just two of us rattling around inside!!!
We left our luggage in the room so we could play a few games of pool in the hostel lounge area. Whilst playing pool, we chatted to Jo and Sarah from our Whitsunday sailing trip. They were staying at our hostel too as we told them it had good reviews when we had last chatted in Airlie Beach. They were just chilling out too. They arrived the day before us and had their pictures taken for a local newspaper. It was for an article on why there were fewer backpackers in the area. Given the rate for Aud$ to the £ had dropped from 2.7:1 down to 1.5:1 in the last 2 years, we could have answered the question for them. A cheap holiday for the Brits Australia most definitely isn't at this rate!!!
As it was raining all day, we sat in ourroom catching up with emails and travel brochures. It was nice not doing much as the next 2 days would be busy on the Fraser Island tour. We did pop to the beach for five minutes but it was deserted.......no surprise given the weather.
We spent the evening with Jo and Sarah chatting over dinner in an Irish bar (Hoolihans).Wewent to the bar to order food, the girl said she would have to check with the kitchen. "You're lucky, the kitchen is still open" was the response. It was only 8:35pm!!! We ate up and were about to order another drink when we saw we were now the only customers. All the chairs were on the tables and we were told they were closing.......it was only 9:30pm. The Irish would be ashamed and embarrassed to find an "Irish" bar in the world closing before midnight!!!!!
As the Irish bar closed, we moved on to another bar had one drink and they closed too it was about 11pm. This is certainly a sleepy town!
We returned to the hostel ensuring our bags were packed ready for our Fraser tour tomorrow.
We awoke the next morning at 6am with a 7am shuttle bus pick up taking us to Rainbow Beach. There were about 12 of us on this tour for 2 days. After many of us dumped our excess luggage in a local car garage (and we had plenty) we boarded a barge to take us to Fraser island. Only an overnight bag was permitted.
The Fraser Island tour starts in the next blog.
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